Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) took a second consecutive victory, after winning GP de Fourmies last weekend, he went on to secure the win again at Grand Prix d'Isbergues-Pas de Calais on Sunday.
De Kleijn sprinted to victory ahead of runner-up Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) and third-placed Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Wanty) in the elite men's 198.8km race routed through the challenging Pas-de-Calais department and into Isbergues, France.
The Tudor sprinter said that he crashed with three laps to go, but said he took precautions and after a quick discussion with his team decided to go for the sprint in the final.
“It was a nice race, we had everything under control until I crashed with a few teammates with three laps to go. I first wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong with my head so I asked myself a few questions. I could answer them all so thought I was good to go. I went again and was asked by the team if I wanted to try to sprint. I really did," he said.
In a team press release, De Kleijn said that his teammates had to wait for a longer period after the crash because the team car was last in the queue, but he thanked his teammates for their support in getting him back in the race and for their lead-out in the final sprint.
"We could come back thanks to a great team effort but then I only had Rick (Pluimers) and Maikel (Zaijlaard) for the sprint. They did an amazing job once again," he said.
"In the sprint, Maikel was leading for a long time, and I even thought at some point that he could make it to the finish, but I eventually went and won. It is amazing. I was in a lot of pain because of the crash. It was hard but with guys like these, it is so nice to give it all and finish it off."
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